Hello everyone. I bought a WPC54G wireless card for my Dell 500mhz (Latitude cpx) laptop (Debian Sarge, kernel 2.6.14). After installing the latest version of ndiswrapper and installing the windows driver off my CD (lsbcmnds.inf), I finally got the system to recognize the card, so it seems.

Now, the reason I am so frustrated is that I simply can not connect to a wireless access point. I want it to automatically connect to wireless access points. Occasionally, I get a connection for a couple of seconds, then it beeps and disconnects again (I keep getting two higher pitched beeps and then a low pitched beep, and in between, I get a connection for a second). I don't understand this at all.

When I type "ifup wlan0" it tells me "eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
Failed to bring up wlan0."

I try to run dhclient and it occasionally looks like it worked and says something like "bound to 192.168.2.108" but it always also says "sit0: unknown hardware address type 776"

When I run pump it simply says "operation failed". When I go "ifdown wlan0" it says "interface wlan0 not configured." Yet it shows up in ifconfig, and iwconfig.

I've tried several configurations in my interfaces file. The current one is:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

I have tried everything, and am ready to commit some terrible crime! The bad part is, I have to drive 15 minutes just to test the wireless. It's horribly frustrating, especially since I'm trying to set this computer up for a friend. Please save me!

check the ndiswrapper website for their chipset list.
they mention in their install instructions that it is better to get the driver from the chipset manufacturer than from the card seller.

I used to have that card on my notebook also. But like you, I was constantly getting frustrated. Got so bad I threw the comp acrsss the desk and I broke the pins in the pcmcia slot and I cracked the card inside the WPC54G in half.... Yeah......

So I went out and bought a USB card and this one I setup almost the exact same way, and it worked fine and never gave me troubles. You could pull it out and it would do the ifdown thing, and plug it in and it would ifup... it was pretty cool. The card I got was a Netgear WG111 http://shop1.outpost.com/product/399...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I really don't want to buy any more hardware for this "free" system. I was told by the store personnel that this card would work in Debian, as they have done it. There are instructions online which I followed to the letter, but never mention the problems I am having.



I'm not sure where to find the ndiswrapper chipset list.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List

i got a $20 usb card from newegg.com made by trendware
loaded ndiswrapper and the driver it said to and it works perfect, hasn't lost signal yet.

can you post the output that shows up in your messages log when you modprobe ndiswrapper

mistake, deleted.

Hmm, not sure how to do that. When I do modprobe, it does nothing. Ndiswrapper -l reports that the driver is loaded and the hardware is present. My problem is that I can't be sure another card or device is going to work either. I'm new enough, apparently, that I hit major roadblocks whatever I do.

I don't know if this is relevant, but in my kernel configuration, I notice that IEEE 802.11 WEP encryption (802.1x), IEEE 802.11i CCMP support, and IEE 802.11i TKIP encryption are not enabled. Should I recompile?

I'll try to give some relevant info here from lsmod and lspci, and et cetera:

lsmod:
ndiswrapper 175316 0
and
usbcore 126720 3 uhci_hcd,ndiswrapper

lspci -v:
0000:02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4318 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Linksys: Unknown device 0048
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
Memory at 22000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]

iwconfig:
lo no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment the:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

the bottom three lines of the wlan0 stuff above will be different when near a wireless network, and sometimes (usually when I hear the first beep) if I type "iwconfig" fast enough it will give me access point numbers. Ifconfig looks like this:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:10:F2:7E:C3
inet6 addr: fe80::213:10ff:fef2:7ec3/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqeuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Memory:22000000-22001fff

Again, some of this will change when in range of an access point and I'm fiddling around with it.

What I can't figure out as well is why, unless my LAN card is plugged in, it won't even try to bring up wlan0 with ifup, because "eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device" But it's supposed to be working on wlan0, not eth0, right?

you get the etho error because you don't have a cable plugged into the wired network card, that is normal

type:
dmesg
look through that for anything that mentions ndiswrapper or linksys and post it

okay, dmesg. I included some things that I didn't think were relevant or useful but just in case . . . (hopefully I got the relevant stuff as well).


PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
IO window: e000-efff
MEM window: fc000000-feffffff
PREFETCH window: 28000000-280fffff
PCI: Bus 2, cardbus bridge: 0000:00:03.0
IO window: 00001000-000010ff
IO window: 00001400-000014ff
PREFETCH window: 20000000-21ffffff
MEM window: 22000000-23ffffff
PCI: Bus 6, cardbus bridge: 0000:00:03.1
IO window: 00001800-000018ff
IO window: 00001c00-00001cff
PREFETCH window: 24000000-25ffffff
MEM window: 26000000-27ffffff
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:03.0 (0000 -> 0003)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:03.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:03.1 (0000 -> 0003)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:03.1[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:03.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:03.0 [1028:00aa]
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.0, mfunc 0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x04b8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000020
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:03.1[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:03.1 [1028:00aa]
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.1, mfunc 0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x04b8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000006
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
TCP reno registered
TCP bic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 8
NET: Registered protocol family 20
ndiswrapper version 1.5 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: driver lsbcmnds (The Linksys Group, Inc.,02/14/2005, 3.90.36.0) loaded
PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
ndiswrapper: using irq 11
wlan0: vendor: ''
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:13:10:f2:7e:c3 using driver lsbcmnds, 14E4:4318.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
ds: ds_open(socket 0)
pcmcia: Detected deprecated PCMCIA ioctl usage.
pcmcia: This interface will soon be removed from the kernel; please expect breakage unless you upgrade to new tools.
pcmcia: see http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...ia/pcmcia.html for details.
ds: ds_open(socket 1)
ds: ds_open(socket 2)
cs: warning: no high memory space available!
ds: ds_release(socket 0)
ds: ds_release(socket 1)
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones

remove the driver you have installed with ndiswrapper and use the following:

Card: Linksys #[WPC54G v3], 54Mbps -- [link here|List#WPC54G v3]

* Chipset: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 802.11/g Wireless LAN
* pciid: 14e4:4318
* Driver: ndiswrapper v1.3 with bcmwl5a.inf ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...0_5020/driver/ (Broadcom, 12/22/2004, v3.100.46.0)
* Other: linux-2.6.8 kernel, debian, card worked well


EDIT
download the 80211g.zip file from that location

Now I am so happy!!!!!!! I downloaded the driver, and got it to ifup wlan0. I did enough playing around though (mainly changing settings in my etc/network/interfaces), I can't be sure it was the driver or not.
I was able to set the ESSID after getting the interface up, and that's when I had the breakthrough. I am using the card right now (I actually just got it working immediately before coming here to inform the group).

Thank you so much for your willingness to help and sorry I was feeling a little down last night.